Commercial Spaceports: Where We Are and Where We Are Going

The commercial spaceport business continues to evolve as new commercial spaceports in the United States receive their FAA launch site operator licenses. The current mix of commercial spaceports provide a range of launch opportunities and can support a myriad of commercial space missions. Current spaceports include those capable of supporting horizontal launch, vertical launch, or both. With launch locations either on the coast or inland, each spaceport has certain limitations on the types of missions they may be able to support, whether they are suborbital or orbital in nature. The author has been a leading consultant on numerous commercial spaceports including those in Florida, Virginia, Texas, Hawaii, and the United Kingdom. This paper will provide a historical context for commercial spaceports to review where spaceports are now and what will come next.